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It's really hard to say, everything tended to be a superlative in at least one category. Looking back, I miss at least one thing about pretty much every car I've had, and it's hard to pick apart whether it was something about the car that I miss, or how the car fit into my life at whatever point I had it. Sometimes the nostalgia isn't about the car at all, but about who you were as a person. 89 civic hatch I bought for $300. It was a massive pile of crap in every sense of the word, but it was a special kind of awesome to have something truly disposable. I cared not one bit about this thing, and it rewarded me with getting no less than 40mpg all the time and never breaking down. Made terrible noises, with the cacophony of a bad throw out bearing, the d15 wheezing out 70hp through a stupid exhaust, and the clunks and rattles of having no interior. Throwing a dollar's worth of walmart spray paint on it every time I got a door ding was hilarious every time I did it. Bought it while I was doing engine work on the Corrado so I could have a backup car to run to the parts store with, ended up keeping it for a year and a half because it was so drat reliable. The best at being the worst  90 VW Corrado with a VR6 swap. The fastest, loudest thing I've had. I've never owned something that has garnered so much attention. Owned it for about 4 years before it got hit, the damage being probably reparable, but I decided it was time for it to go. I was at a strange time in my life and was somewhat depressed, and the combination of positive attention and having a constructive project to work on (ALL THE TIME THIS THING WAS HORRIBLY UNRELIABLE) really helped me out. This was also the car that cemented that I am a "car guy". Before this I had tinkered around with whatever I owned at the time, but this was the first car I did real work on. There wasn't a bolt on this thing that I hadn't turned, and I loved that it was the first car that I felt was fully "mine". This is the car that I'm always driving when I'm dreaming.  96 Audi A6 Quattro. Automatic transmission plus the crappy 2.8 V6 means I never had any fun with it. On paper, this was the best normal person car I've had. It was big, boring, comfortable, sedate, reliable, economical, and grown up. It took me a while to get used to it, as the Corrado was what I had just before this. Bought it for $2200, replaced tires and suspension for maybe a grand or so, sold it three years later for $3000. Absolutely nothing broke on this car outside of the CD changer getting jammed a time or two. Going into my late twenties, this car made me feel like I was making progress and maturing. Was I more responsible because I was in an old man's car, or did I buy an old man's car because I knew I wanted to grow up?  90 Audi 90 Quattro 20V. Maybe I shouldn't have bought a car with 300K miles. Objectively, the worst car I've ever had. In the year and a half I owned it, I probably pissed away 6 grand or more on repairs. Radiator popping 1000 miles from home, coolant tank, water pump, fuel pump, shift bushings disentegrating while I'm driving it, rear suspension collapsing, 5 caliper rebuilds all on the back, heater core blowing up, probably other stuff I've blocked out of my memory, all within that year. It was constantly broken, wasn't very practical, but good god did it make an awesome noise. With the locking diff and studded snows, it was incredible to drive through the crappiest conditions in complete control. I'm still fairly certain I bought this because I wanted to "recapture my youth" or something equally silly. Chasing the magic of your first fast car with something old and unreliable as your only car is a terrible idea. Someday, I'll own another 5cyl powered Audi.  And the car I have today, 2000 Audi A6. Quattro, 2.7TT, 6 speed. It's relatively quick in stock form, has the potential to be super quick if I decide to add power later on, big, supremely comfortable, has been super reliable so far, still looks grown up, has a bitching stereo, and actually gets alright gas mileage for how big it is. There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about this car. It's also nice to have something that's a bit sleeper-ish. It's pretty drat fast but doesn't shout about it. I'm keeping this one for a while.  Other stuff not worth talking about : 96 Explorer. Boring 00 Focus ZX3. Kinda fun but not really great at anything in particular. 00 Grand Prix. Boring and terrible and already falling apart with less than 100K miles 60 Triumph TR3. I've put maybe 50 miles on it in the 10 years I've owned it. Maybe someday I'll put it together
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Feb 23, 2015 19:44
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 03:18 |
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